Damaged Goods
by threebagsfulled
Summary: Set near the beginning of "Dancing In The Dark" Reid must face his darkest secret because honesty is part of falling in love.    Reid and Review!


Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds or any of the characters in it, mores the pity. I'm just borrowing them, but I promise to put them back more or less how I found them!

Chapter 1

Dr. Micheal Whittier.

"Please tell me that that antique hunk of junk out front does not belong to our dear Dr. Reid," Micheal Whittier asked his mother with a quick glance around the brightly lit kitchen to be sure they were alone. A lopsided smile graced his handsome face and his green eyes were twinkling as he gave her a quick hug.

Allie Whittier smiled at her oldest child fondly. "Yes," she said simply, "it does."

"Wow, he's braver than I thought!" Michael said, snagging a stool at the counter and sitting down so they could talk while she cooked.

"He _does_ have a Phd. in Engineering," Allie countered.

Micheal stared at his mother, shocked. Reids' Phd. was in _Engineering, _why hadn't he known that, he thought, followed rapidly by - _Wait!_ He uses the title 'doctor' with a degree in _Engineering?_? What kind of an ass was he anyway? But what he said was, "So... _what?_ That means he knows where the gas tank is?"

"Micheal! Be nice!" Allie chided, laughing despite herself.

He cocked his head and looked at her for a minute.

Really looked at her.

"You _like_ him!" he exclaimed, and Allie nodded. "Yes. I do."

Grabbing a plum off the counter Micheal considered her answer as he ate it.

Never, not once, had his Mom liked a guy Molly had dated..._ever_.

Huh...so what was with _this_ guy, anyway, a fed who had a Phd. in _Engineering_ of all things? He'd just assumed the doctorate was in History or English or something equally as useless. Come to think of it, who got a Phd. in Engineering anyway?

"So what makes _him _special?" he couldn't help asking completely at a loss.

Allie smiled. "He just... is."

"Wow, Mom, that was helpful!"

"Why don't you go find out for yourself? They're down in The Kingdom," she told him.

The Kingdom … Michael grinned despite himself. Years ago Molly had proclaimed the sun room her own "private kingdom" and the name had stuck even after all these years.

"To the Kingdom it is then," he said, wondering why on earth he felt so rattled about meeting one of Molly's boyfriends. They'd never rattled him before. Not a single muscle bound one of them.

Yeah, but Mom had never _liked _one of them before, he whined mentally.

Get a grip! he admonished himself. What the heck was _wrong _with him, was he scared the guy was gonna beat him up or something?

Molly's nerdy, genius, older brother...

Ah geez, he hadn't felt this insecure since High School...

I'm older than he is, he thought childishly. Yeah, by a whole year, and smarter too, he added, _my_ doctorate's in Mathematics not freaking _Engineering._ He paused in the dark hallway and grinned. Wow Whittier, he told himself, _that_ was grownup! Then he stepped into the doorway of Molly's Kingdom and stopped dead.

It wasn't just that they were kissing, it was the _way_ they were kissing, with so much passion and tenderness that Whitts breath caught in his throat... and Molly heard him. In one fluid movement she pushed away from her startled lover, snatched up a cushion and threw it at her brother.

"Oh, you _brat_!" she screamed. "How long have you been _standing_ there?"

"Long enough to learn a few things about kissing I didn't know before!" he got out wickedly, barely dodging the cushion as it sailed past him.

"Oh! Get _OUT_!" She yelled throwing a second cushion at him.

"I live here, too, sweetie," he reminded her throwing a quick wink at a very startled Dr. Reid before beating a hasty retreat back up the hallway before his sister threw something hard and hurtful at him.

"Well?" Allie asked as he walked back into the kitchen again.

"Well, what?"

"Michael!"

"We, uh, didn't exactly get a chance to meet," he admitted grinning.

"Ah," his mom said smiling despite herself, "I take it they were...busy?"

"You could put it that way," he agreed.

What he didn't say was that the tall, slender, long haired young man was not at all what he'd been expecting. Nor was the way he'd been kissing his little sister.

Damn.


End file.
